, in order to exhibit a proper
amount of contrition he took his leave with a little more formality than
usual on this particular occasion. Possibly she was willing to show that
she forgave him, for she hesitated a moment just before opening the
door, and then, to his great surprise, held out her hand to him.

"It is your custom," she said, just touching his eagerly outstretched
fingers. "But you must not look at it," she added, drawing it back
quickly and hiding it in her sleeve with another low laugh. And she
began to shut the door almost before he had quite gone through.

Dalrymple walked more slowly on that day, as he descended through the
steep and narrow streets, and though he was surefooted by nature and
habit, he almost stumbled once or twice on his way down, because,
somehow, though his eyes looked towards his feet, he did not see exactly
where he was going.

There is no necessity for analyzing his sensations. It is enough to say
at once that he was beginning to be really in love with Maria
Addolorata, and that he denied the fact to himself stoutly, though it
forced itself upon him with every step which took him further from the
convent. He felt on that day a strong premonitory symptom in the shape
of a logical objection, as it were, to his returning again to see the
nun. The objection was the evident and total futility of the almost
intimate intercourse into which the two were gliding. The day must soon
come when the abbess would no longer need his assistance. In all
probability she would recover, for the more alarming symptoms had
disappeared, and she showed signs of regaining her strength by slow
degrees. It was quite clear to Dalrymple that, after her ultimate
recovery, his chance of seeing and talking with Maria Addolorata would
be gone forever. Sor Tommaso, indeed, recovered but slowly. Of the two
his case was the worse, for fever had set in on the third day and had
not left him yet, so that he assured Dalrymple almost hourly that his
last moment was at hand. But he also was sure to get well, in the
Scotchman's opinion, and the latter knew well enough that his own
temporary privileges as physician to the convent would be withdrawn from
him as soon as the Subiaco doctor should be able to climb the hill.

It was all, therefore, but a brief incident in his life, which could not
possibly have any continuation hereafter. He tried in vain to form plans
and create reasons for seeing Maria Addolorata even once